Questions and answers

No. Benday is a reader for your own server: Komga, Kavita, Stump or any OPDS catalog, run by you or someone who shares it with you. It shows the comics, manga and webtoons on that server, and files already on your device.

Benday is a one-time purchase on Google Play. There are no ads, subscriptions or in-app purchases, and updates are included.

No. Benday is an independent app that uses the servers' public APIs and OPDS catalogs. Questions about a server itself belong with its makers; questions about the app, here.

Ben-Day dots are the little coloured dots old comics were printed with, the ones in the app icon. They're named after Benjamin Day, the illustrator who invented the process in 1879.

Not at the moment: Benday is for Android phones, tablets and Chromebooks. On other devices, your server's own web reader works in any browser.

Komga, Kavita and Stump (0.1.8 and newer), through their own APIs, and any OPDS 1.2 catalog. Benday knows the extras of Codex, calibre-web, Calibre-Web-Automated, Suwayomi, Grimmory, BookLore, BookOrbit and LANraragi. The guide's Supported servers shows what works on each.

Komga: a recent 1.x; keeping the server up to date is the safest bet. Signing in with an API key needs Komga 1.15 or newer. Kavita: 0.8.9 or newer for full Kavita mode; an older Kavita works through its OPDS catalog. Stump: 0.1.8 or newer for full Stump mode, and an account with Stump's API keys permission; otherwise Stump works through its OPDS catalog.

• Komga: the address you open in a browser, such as http://192.168.1.20:25600, with its path if it has one. Your email and password, or an API key.
• Kavita: the address you open in a browser, with your username and password or your API key. Benday uses the password once to fetch your API key and keeps only the key.
• Stump: the address you open in a browser, with your username and password or a Stump API key. Benday uses the password once to create an API key for this device and keeps only the key. The account needs Stump's API keys permission; without it, use Stump's OPDS catalog (/opds/v1.2/catalog) with the same login.
• Other servers: their OPDS catalog's address, with your login on that server (or None for an open catalog). Codex /opds/v1.2/, calibre-web and Calibre-Web-Automated /opds, Suwayomi /api/opds/v1.2, Grimmory, BookLore and BookOrbit /api/v1/opds, LANraragi /api/opds, each after the server's address.

The guide's Signing in has the details.

Open the same address in your phone's browser. If that fails too, the phone can't reach the server:

• At home: is the phone on the same Wi-Fi? Is the port right (Komga's default is 25600, Kavita's 5000, Stump's 10801)?
• Away from home: is the server published through a reverse proxy, or is your VPN on?
• localhost or 127.0.0.1 mean the phone itself. Use the server's network address.

No. Edit the server in Settings › Servers and add the other one as its Away address. Benday uses whichever answers, tries the home one first on Wi-Fi, and switches by itself when you leave or come home. Downloads and progress stay the same. See Home and away addresses.

Yes. Benday shows the certificate and asks whether to trust it. If you do, it remembers that exact certificate for that server and asks again if it changes, which also protects you from someone impersonating the server. A free Let's Encrypt certificate avoids the question altogether.

Yes, which is handy on a home network. Keep in mind that on HTTP your password and books travel unencrypted, so use HTTPS or a VPN for anything outside your own network.

Benday talks to the server's API or OPDS catalog and can't fill in a login page. Let the API or catalog through your proxy without SSO (the server still checks the password or API key), or connect over your VPN to the server directly. If Benday says the address isn't "a server Benday supports or an OPDS catalog", a login page is in the way.

On every catalog: browsing the catalog as the server arranges it, its search and filters where it has them, reading, downloads, pinning catalog pages to Home, Continue reading, and progress saved on the device.

Depending on the server: page streaming (otherwise a book opens once it's downloaded), progress sent to the server, and books you finished elsewhere showing as read. Benday knows how for Codex, Suwayomi, LANraragi, calibre-web, Calibre-Web-Automated, Grimmory, BookLore, BookOrbit, and Komga, Kavita and Stump over OPDS; the server table has the details.

Not on OPDS: Benday's own library filters, collections and read lists (unless the catalog lists them as pages), live updates when books are added, bookmarks and settings synced between devices, MangaUpdates tracking, and the Komga extras (Want to read, Upcoming, Discover, metadata editing).

Benday notices, and Home offers to switch to full Komga, Kavita or Stump mode, which has much more (Kavita needs 0.8.9 or newer, Stump 0.1.8 or newer). Books you downloaded through the catalog stay readable under Downloads.

Calibre-Web-Automated, Grimmory, BookLore and BookOrbit take reading progress through their KOReader sync server. Switch it on there first: on Calibre-Web-Automated the admin turns it on for the server; on Grimmory, BookLore and BookOrbit each user turns it on in their KOReader settings.

Benday signs in with the catalog's username and password. If your KOReader login on Grimmory, BookLore or BookOrbit is a different one, open Manage servers (Settings › Servers), edit the catalog, choose KOReader sync, enter that login and press Test. More in the guide.

KOReader sync doesn't know books by title or id but by a fingerprint of the file, the same file KOReader would have. Benday can only compute that from the server's own file, downloaded whole. On these servers books are downloaded before they open anyway; if you remove a download, that book's progress stays on the device until you download it again.

The server takes no progress from Benday: a plain OPDS catalog, calibre-web, LANraragi with progress kept in the browser, or KOReader sync that is switched off or doesn't accept the login. Your progress is safe on the device. On calibre-web, books you mark read there still show as read in Benday.

CBZ, CBR (except RAR5 archives: convert those to CBZ), PDF, and EPUB and KEPUB (comics and novels). Files on your device can be CBZ, CBR or PDF.

Pick right to left from the reader's toolbar; Benday remembers it for that series (on all your devices, with Komga). To fix it for everyone, set the series' reading direction in Komga, a reading profile in Kavita, or the library's reading settings in Stump.

On Komga, Kavita and Stump, yes: Benday saves progress to the server, so its web reader and other apps see it. On Komga, bookmarks, ratings and per-series settings also sync between your Benday devices. On OPDS catalogs it depends on the server; see the next questions.

Turn on Incognito mode in the menu at the top of Home, or Incognito in Settings. Until you turn it off, nothing is recorded: no progress, history or statistics.

In Benday's own app storage, which other apps can't read. On a device with a memory card, Downloads › Queue & settings › Download location can keep them on the card instead and move the ones you already have. Either way only Benday can read them, and Android removes them when Benday is uninstalled. A storage limit in the same place keeps them in check.

Benday keeps downloading in the background with a notification. Some phones (Samsung, Xiaomi, Huawei and others) still stop background apps to save battery. Set Benday's battery use to "Unrestricted" in Android's app settings.

None for us. There are no accounts, analytics or crash reports. Your data goes only to your server and to services you connect yourself. The privacy policy has the details.

On your device, in Android's encrypted storage, and it is only sent to your server. Backups never include it.

Post it on the feedback page. Bug reports help most with the app version (Settings › About Benday), your Android version and device, and the steps that lead to the problem.